Nani to naku mono zo kanashiki Sugawara ya Fushimi no sato no aki no yūgure - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

なにとなく物ぞ悲しき菅原や
伏見の里の秋の夕暮

Roma-ji: Nani to naku mono zo kanashiki Sugawara ya Fushimi no sato no aki no yūgure
English Translation: For no reason that I know
my heart is filled with sadness:
in Sugawara,
the village of Fushimi
at dusk on an autumn day
Meaning: Without knowing why, I am filled with sadness: the autumn twilight in the village of Fushimi at Sugawara.
Commentary: Book Four Autumn Poems I 260

Headnote: "Topic unknown"
Though there is no particular reason, the poet feels somehow sad: the autumn twilight in the village of Fushimi at Sugawara. Instead of naming the cause of his sorrow, he says only "for no reason," and by presenting nothing but the scene of an autumn evening in Fushimi, sung of as a ruined old village, he leaves an inexpressible loneliness as lingering feeling.
The author, "Minamoto no Toshiyori Ason," was the son of Major Counselor Minamoto no Tsunenobu. The central poet of Emperor Horikawa's poetry circle, he compiled the Kin'yō Wakashū at the command of Retired Emperor Shirakawa and wrote the treatise Toshiyori Zuinō. A poem of his is included in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu.
Ever since an anonymous poem in the Kokin Wakashū, "Come, let me spend my life here; how I regret that the village of Fushimi in Sugawara should fall to ruin," Fushimi in Sugawara has been sung of as a decaying old village. Following the village of Fukakusa in the preceding poem, 259, this poem sings of the village of Fushimi, both depicting the loneliness of autumn evening in a ruined village.

First line, "nani to naku": "for no particular reason."
Second line, "mono zo kanashiki": "zo" closes with the attributive "kanashiki." The poem pauses here and is inverted with the lines that follow.
Third line, "Sugawara ya": Sugawara is a place in Yamato, and "ya" is an exclamatory particle leading to "Fushimi" in the fourth line.
Fourth line, "Fushimi no sato no": Fushimi was a village at Sugawara in Yamato, sung of as a ruined old village. Like "Fukakusa no sato" in the preceding poem, 259, it names a "sato," a village.
Fifth line, "aki no yūgure": ends on a noun, presenting at last the scene that is the source of the sadness. "Yūgure no sora" in 235 and 278 of this book also sings of autumn evenings.
Author: Minamoto no Toshiyori
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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